‘I am 79 now’: Former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi announces his retirement from electoral politics

PATNA: Former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi on Sunday announced his retirement from electoral politics, saying he is too old to contest elections now.
This comes amid speculations that he could be suitably given “post-retirement” post by the BJP.

The announcement came barely two days after Manjhi along with his son and party chief Santosh Kumar Suman called on Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi, apparently over the issue of seat sharing. HAM(S) joined the NDA in June this year after walking out of the ruling Grand Alliance in the state. Earlier in July 2021 too, Manjhi had said this was his last term since he had grown old.
“I am not in a position to contest elections anymore. I am already 79 now,” Manjhi said on Sunday, adding he would not contest elections in future. He also observed that people attaining 75 years of age should not get involved in electoral politics—a standard recently set by the BJP.
Claiming he had always followed the principles, Manjhi said it was due to this fact that he quit many jobs to join politics.
“I have always followed the principles in life and set a standard that one should not continue with the electoral politics after 75 and I have to follow that,” Manjhi claimed.
Strangely, coming out of the meeting, Manjhi appeared calm and composed, and left everything to the BJP to decide over his party’s fate, indicating “some sort of deal” had been struck between them, analysts said.
“There is no dispute over seat-sharing in the NDA. I will accept whatever seat is spared for us,” Manjhi had said on Friday, once coming out of the meeting. “We told the home minister that he is well aware of our ‘aukat’ (political strength) and we will accept whatever seat is given to us,” Manjhi revealed.
During his active political career spanning over four decades, Manjhi has worked for almost every frontline party, such as the Congress, RJD, JD(U) and also as a BJP ally. However, his political career got a sudden boost when CM Nitish Kumar handed over his throne to Manjhi after JD(U)’s disastrous performance during the 2014 LS polls when the party was able to win only two seats out of the state’s total 40.